"This was a political hit. This was a hit. Not trying to make a point," Biden said this afternoon in a pugnacious counteroffensive against the president on behalf of Obama.

In his address to the Knesset, Bush said ""Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."

The Obama camp took issue with Bush's remarks, calling them "a false political attack".

Biden took Bush to task for his tacit criticism of Obama's pledge to speak to leaders in Iran and Syria before the Israeli Knessett today and said the president should "get a life".

"His policy has been an abject failure," Biden said of the president. "For him to call those who rightly see the need for talk as appeasers is delusional and for him to do it from abroad is disgraceful."

Biden referred to what he called the "ridiculous hypocrisy of [the president's] statement."